


In a World Turned Upside Down

by Merfilly



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-31
Updated: 2007-12-31
Packaged: 2017-12-08 02:54:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/756167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexander Luthor succeeded, but some few know the truth, and set about fixing it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In a World Turned Upside Down

She woke in a sweating terror storm, the Cry silenced only by a lifelong attempt to keep it in check. The man next to her turned in his sleep, eye opening slowly to look at her with concern.

"Easy, my Little Bird." His rumbling voice penetrated the blind terror, making a whimpering sob escape her locked throat as she threw herself into his arms. "It was just a nightmare."

She nuzzled at his throat, knowing what he said was true. Unfortunately, nightmares had been her lot in life ever since the world had gone to hell, and she found herself as lost in the new reality as a frightened child. She was not Black Canary…that was the woman who had Ollie and reminded Dinah of her mother, running with the Justice Society. Her boy, her precious Roy Harper, did not seem to exist here. Which meant neither did Lian.

And Oracle was gone. Superman was an older man, and there were so many changes she had barely begun to learn.

Apparently, she was not supposed to exist in this world Alexander Luthor had forged from so many parallel Earths.

Then again, neither was the man who had found her, who had given her a strong reason to cling to sanity when she wanted to break, having been callously rebuffed as an imposter by the JSA.

"I want our world back," she whispered. "I don't like this world; it is…broken."

The perfect world Alex had forged was made to emulate his Earth. But his need to control it all had infected the shaping, and left a malignant darkness inside every hero and villain alike that had been taken from their home universes. Only the few from the one-true universe Barry had forged in beating the Anti-Monitor seemed immune to it. And they were surviving by their wits, or breaking into insanity, as the world continued to reject their parasitic presence.

"Ahh, Little Bird." Not for the first time, he envied her simplistic ability to just say anything, even when it did no good. All that he had done, assisting Alex in forging the Society, in throttling the heroes, breaking his very own Dick Grayson haunted his dreams, but so far he had not found any way to fix it. He had never been one to complain about a problem; he preferred to find the solution.

"We need to find everyone like us, Slade," Dinah said with a fervent, shining need in her eyes.

"The last time we found one, it was Cheshire, and …"

Dinah shuddered. Cheshire had been completely insane at learning neither Roy nor Lian existed. The fight that had ensued had been too close, too personal for Slade to get involved without hurting Dinah. They both could still remember the sound of Cheshire's neck breaking in the fall, though with very different reactions. Slade had been pleased to have her gone at last; Dinah was still sickened that she had, even accidentally, killed the mother of her goddaughter.

Of course, Slade had been too hard pressed to save Dinah from the poisons to fully enjoy the victory. It had been a very near thing, and the hard-driven mercenary had come face to face with a cold, hard fact of his own existence. He did not want to lose this lover, no matter how tenuous the relationship would be if they did find a way to restore their own world.

His hand played over her back, over her soft hair that she had cut and allowed to go natural. She settled close to him, not without a pang of regret. She could never forget what he had done, who he was, for all that he had treated her so well since finding her.

He was a killer. Not like herself or Ollie, who killed only when there were stakes that overwhelmed the code of no kills. No, he killed because he could, because it was his calling. And yet … he was the one hope she had that they might find a way home. He was, after all, the best of the best, and supposedly as smart as Batman.

"We'll start moving again tomorrow, see what we can do." His voice was a distinct rumble under her ear, as she pressed tight to his chest.

"Thank you." She turned her face up to him, accepting the oddly gentle kiss he offered, and responding to it with the edge of her terror-induced adrenaline pushing her into desire.

It was not right to give herself to him, and yet she could not stop herself, anymore than he seemed willing to turn her away.

`~`~`~`~`

They found a double handful of misplaced people, working individually to find them, recruit them, and gather them in an old abandoned refinery. The night they had agreed to meet came and found the two groups, evenly divided between both sides of the law, eyeing each other with distrust and suspicion. 

Dinah Lance emerged from the shadows, and looked them all over. "You need to set aside the enmity. If we are going to find a way to escape the hell Alexander Luthor created, to save our friends who went insane from this world already, we have to work together."

"So you can just round us all up for jail after that?" Captain Boomerang hissed in her direction, skeptical of her motivations. He had come through the world shaping with Killer Frost, who had gone insane, attacked the JSA, and been killed trying to escape custody.

"No." The voice was a deep rumble, and Slade's armor was distinctive enough that no one doubted who he was. What they did blink twice at was the fact he moved behind Dinah, placing his hands on her shoulders…and she did not react.

"As Deathstroke and I have been recruiting you, we have hammered out an agreement. We cover each other's backs, work to fix the multiverse, and then go our separate ways when we get home." Dinah met the eyes of villains and heroes alike. "My word…and his, on this."

"Exactly," Slade said, a hint of menace in his voice. "No backstabbing from either side. And secrets learned as we run together…anyone using them to strike at the other side once we do get home, will face me."

There were comments and murmuring at that, but in the end, they knew they had no choice. The two who had brought them together had been the first sign of hope they all shared, that someone was finally doing something about the hell they were living in.

`~`~`~`~`

Dinah felt him press close, felt the way his body accepted her into its hard planes. They had hammered out scouting parties, then watched their group melt away. Going up to their living area, he had slipped out of the armor, coaxing her into putting on the softer clothing and let her leather wait for another time.

"They're going to see it, in us, aren't they?"

He considered her words, knew just why she asked them. He knew, no matter how ardently she responded to him as a woman, how loyal she was as an ally, that they had a wall between them.

"Perhaps it will serve a purpose, that we show a firm alliance, that puts aside ethical differences."

She sighed softly. "You're right…you usually are on things like this." She turned into his arms, trying hard not to take pleasure at the sheer difference in height, trying not to enjoy the fact he made her feel safe in the face of uncertainty.

He kissed her forehead, tightening his arms around her. She would never realize that the wall was entirely her own doing, that as far as he was concerned, she belonged in his arms.


End file.
